There are plenty of posts from the Plex devs saying YEARS AGO that the Plex Preview app.. the current one available on the Plex store.. will be made available in ZIP form for sideloading. For, you know, all the other countries in the world that aren't the US of A. I'm starting to think it's a lie, there are posts from 2015 from Plex employees saying it would 'be a pain now, but we intend it for everyone!'.

I don't know if they do. I'm suspecting actually instead it sells Plex Passes and that's the name of the game.

Its a simple request, the free software you offer through the Plex channel service.. just put a ZIP of the Preview Client (you know, where stuff works like Collection Artwork) up so the UK and Australia and others who don't have Roku offered first-party can still use Plex without a version from years ago.

I haven't heard a rational or reasonable reason to why this isn't done. All I've seen is a whole lot of 'oh that would be hard' while simultaneously linking to the github where they host every version of the Classic client.

Noone minds buying the Plex Pass but that still doesn't get me the software!! Whats the story Plex? Why are we still here years later? Does Plex officially not give a shit about anywhere but the US? Good thing to know before I invest too much into your platform..

There is no free version of Plex on Roku.
There is a 30-day trial, which then becomes one time payment required ($4.99) to continue using it’s features.
Been that way since early 2014.
(Why would Plex then give away a zip for people to sideload?)

Additionally, Using sideload code / zip on ISP/video service provided Roku is (usually/likely) against the terms of the Roku and or ISP/Video provider agreement. Roku sells those for pennies on the dollar to your provider.

I'm very pleased to share that the official channel has had its 2.8.2 update approved by Roku and is now available in the channel store! The main purpose of this release was to support the new remote control features that were introduced as part of...

Then use it. The non classic costs now as I previously linked. 4.99us. I’ve no idea what the U.K. Roku store sells it for, but I’m sure it’s just as reasonable. One time fee. All Roku tied to the same Roku account can use it.

its a media player

It’s also a for-profit company.
As much as I didn’t like the decision to go commercial with the Roku client, they hired the Dev that had been working on Rarflix, lljunkie. At the time, Rarflix blew Roku client away. Now that he’s the dev of official, the proprietary one blows classic away, and imo is worth every single penny of the one time cost for the non classic Roku client.

Maybe they’re mad cause they read about side loading apps on “free” Roku provided by the tv provider and now realizes just how much that free Roku costs, especially now that many Roku apps including Plex have closed that loophole.

Either way, I too am frustrated with plex as a company over several things.
The cost of the official Roku app isn’t one.

Actually I believe the Plex client (The latest with all the bells and whistles) is now free in the Roku “channel” (app) store. You no longer need to pay anything to unlock it if you do not have a Plex Pass.

I think that happened about a year and a half ago. But my old brain has been known to play tricks on me. I cannot find any recent post pro or con about the Roku app being free. The linked post is old form 2013-2014 with a couple of superfluous posts in January of 2015.

@JamminR said:
Either way, they can’t load it on their locked-down-to-ISP-TV-Provider-firmware Roku because Plex is not open source / offered as a Zip like plex classic is.

Absolutely true. I have been in contact with a few folks in regions where the locked down Rokus are sold and I have told them to either simply get a “regular” Roku or get both if they need the locked down model to receive content from their provider.

The only problem that anyone running both has run into is that the third party Roku came with an IR remote that would control both Rokus. Since their real Roku was a Roku 3 they simply placed it out of sight and controlled it with the included RF remote.

The locked down Rokus really are not Rokus they are some bastardized hybrid of Roku and the spawn of some lesser demon.